Good Day for Michigan Women's Sports

The Michigan Softball and Women's Lacrosse teams played today (well, yesterday technically) and both won in dominating fashion.

The softball team won at CMU 11-0 in five innings. Romero hit a home run on her very first pitch and Sierra Lawrence and Kelly Christner each had home runs. Megan Betsa and Sara Driesenga were both solid on the mound for Michigan's 3rd straight shutout. Michigan has now won 20 straight, the sixth time in program history that has happened. The team has a big weekend against Big Ten #2 Minnesota this weekend. Winning at least one would be big, winning two or three would be huge.

Michigan Women's Lacrosse also won its third game (second straight) of the year against Detroit, 16-6. This is the most goals Michigan has scored this year and the fewest allowed this year. Detroit has had a team for longer than Michigan, so winning 16-6 is certainly a good sign for the future.

Sending Sierra Romero up to bat against a middle-of-the-road MAC team hardly even seems fair. :)

More seriously, I really like the way that Hutch has managed the pitching staff since the start of conference season (I wasn't paying as close of attention to who was in the circle prior to that point). She's used the mid-week games like this one against weaker competition as chances to get Betsa more experience, mixing in Driesenga a little as well. In the three-game sets, she has for the most part thrown each pitcher out there for a game.

Given the insane run support the O has been providing, this seems to me the perfect chance to give a young pitcher (Betsa) and one who struggled out of the gate this year (Driesenga) experience and game reps. Meanwhile, Wagner is certainly getting her time as well, but there's no need to run her into the ground with three solid pitchers. This approach may very well pay some big dividends down the stretch, especially when it comes to post-season play. Driesenga & Betsa are both getting better & better, game by game, and Wagner should come into the post-season as rested as an ace pitcher can be, ready to be the driving force behind our post-season run.

This weekend will be interesting to watch in that regard. Minnesota is a good team, #12 in the country for a reason. Will Hutch throw Wagner multiple times in the series, or stick to the 1 game apiece plan? We'll find out soon enough!